


pour the champagne

by indemnis



Series: B.A.P Bingo Challenge [5]
Category: B.A.P, K-pop
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-06
Updated: 2015-08-06
Packaged: 2018-04-13 05:59:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4510488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indemnis/pseuds/indemnis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Many years later and here they are, full circle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	pour the champagne

**Author's Note:**

> For the B.A.P Bingo Challenge Square: Canon Future Fic

_If home is where the heart is then we’re all just fucked._

It had been a gruelling period of time for all of them and Yongguk knows he has a part to play in all of this. He wasn’t the one who demanded compensation. He had been selfish and had earned enough money from his royalties.

He chose to close both eyes when Himchan had to continuously borrow money from his mother, the way Daehyun would shrink back into his empty husk when his mother wires more cash to his account from Busan and asks him why his expenses are getting higher.

_Are you not getting paid enough?_

Yongguk shuts his mouth because he isn’t a rebel, because a coup d'état in their day is like courting death. _Do not fight the management_ were the words in neon lights, were the tattoos on their foreheads when they printed their autographs on the contracts.

Did Yongguk mind? Yes. But did he do much to help? No.

He wasn’t sure if that was because he was a peacemaker and the less trouble the better, or because he chose to express his unhappiness passive aggressively through his music, but it had gone unnoticed and that makes him frustrated.

He has to be thankful, he supposes at some point of time, to the man who had made their dream team possible. If it wasn’t for him, there would not be a Bang Yongguk on stage, and he wouldn’t have earned himself such worthy and dignified friends.

He wishes he had more affection for the entire organisation, so much so that he can wipe off his sins, make them into a clean slate and then listen to his heart. Because home is where the heart is, isn’t it?

The company was their home, one that they were attracted to go into, glamourous enough to stay in, happy enough to sign their names on the lease and when they finally realise how things have turned out, coerced to continue living in it, or else the creditors would be up their asses.

It was where his heart was supposed to be in. But was it home?

*****

Himchan is tired. He’s worn out from the endless practices, the relentless hollers, the constant reminders that he’s not as good as any of his team members and improving at the slowest rate.

He has to hone his skills if he wants to earn a decent living out of it, he supposes, but what skills? Himchan is constantly feeling in between _I’m already so bad at all of this – I don’t give a fuck_ and _I’m horrible at everything I must work hard_.

The root of everything is his self-confession that he’s a good-for-nothing. Which isn’t true, but Himchan doesn’t know that.

Every compliment they pile onto him he regards them as sympathy, never for a moment thinking if they could be truthful, and he takes them obligingly.

Why bite the hand that feeds you? If they want to sympathise, then let them. They feel better, I look better.

So he thinks the break they’ve had was a well-deserved vacation. For his members, of course. Himchan thinks he doesn’t deserve any of the things he’s had up till now. Perhaps that’s why he’s one of the people who chose to shut up about the unfair treatment.

Who was he to ask for fair treatment? Was his behaviour and lack of actual talent fair treatment for his group? He doesn’t think so.

He feels bad for letting his younger brothers take on the responsibility to speak up for their rights. They had initiated the case and Himchan merely went with the flow.

It’s a good way for them to vent their anger and they have so much hot young blood anyway, he tells Yongguk one day over dinner and Yongguk had been silent.

Of course Himchan knew of Yongguk’s decision – he wanted to do whatever that makes the people he cares about happy, but he is definitely not the kind to start a war. It wasn’t so much that Himchan wanted to hear his wise advice, but in this moment, he thinks he wouldn’t mind a few words of sympathy, the ones they used to shower onto him so generously.

Yongguk gulps down his small shot of soju and clears his throat. He looks like he’s poised to speak, but Himchan is sinking into his seat and they are abnormally awkward.

“It’ll all be okay.”

This isn’t a word of sympathy and it sounds like a horrible excuse for a statement of reassurance, because they know everything is not going to be okay – they’re going to return to the same hellhole they’ve irked to their cores.

The kids will be highly indignant about this. They will hear no end of the gossip and the way others would point fingers at them. They would probably call them nasty names.

And yet it’s oddly soothing, the way Yongguk is just slightly intoxicated, the way the scene before their eyes seems to shake and spin and they’ve lost their bearings and the last bit of their ‘rebellious dignity’ has been shred.

They have nothing to lose now, so they can only go up from here.

So Himchan downs his bit of the soju and they collapse in a pile and somehow Yongguk will be right, like he always has been.

*****

It is twenty years down the road. They part ways.

They’re having a gathering at the barbeque place near their old hostel and Daehyun is running late. He jumps off the taxi after paying the driver and dashes his way through the crowd and into the shop.

“Sorry I’m late!” he hollers and he sees the way their faces light up, the way they’re so happy to see him. He hasn’t really met a bunch of people quite like them – perhaps adversity was for a good cause after all.

Himchan shoots him a reproachful glance and Daehyun cowers, the same way he does when Himchan yells at him for throwing his socks and underwear around in the dormitory – was that really twenty years ago? It seems just like yesterday.

“You better have a good excuse this time, man,” Youngjae says, flipping the meat on the grill absentmindedly. He looks good with facial hair. The stubble he has at the tip of his chin is oddly charming.

“Children,” Daehyun says, simply, and they all just nod without asking further. They’re all past their golden ages and they’re way too old to be idols anyway.

“So, how’s everyone?” Daehyun asks, helping himself to a cooked piece of _samgyupsal_ on the grill, which earns him a hateful glare from Youngjae. He loves the guy, but he’s always so anal about everything.

“Same ol’, same ol’,” Jongup says first as he fiddles with his chopsticks, and Himchan slaps his wrist gently, giving him a stern look. Daehyun stifles his laughter.

“Still teaching?”

Jongup shows a painful expression. “Yeah. Have I told you how intolerable kids are nowadays?”

Youngjae clips a piece of meat and drops it into Junhong’s bowl. “Yes, all the time, Moon Jongup.”

“Shut up, I can afford to rant a little with you guys.” Jongup scowls and picks up a piece of meat, munching it with fervour.

“’Bout you?” Daehyun nudges Junhong, who’s sitting in between him and Youngjae, and the youngest man just smiles weakly.

“Weddings are the bane of my existence.”

Youngjae chortles and Daehyun just laughs in acknowledgement. “Hey, at least you’re getting married, not like someone –”

Youngjae shoots him a death glare and drops meat into his own bowl. “Shut up. No one asked for your analysis on my marital status.”

“Touché,” Himchan chimes in suddenly, when his cheeks aren’t bloated from the meat he’s stuffed into his mouth.

“Pot calling the kettle black,” Yongguk mutters by the side and Himchan stares at him in disbelief. “Fucking twat,” he mumbles, and Yongguk punches his arm and gives him a piece of meat and they’re alright again.

Daehyun sits back into his seat and they are comfortable the way they are, middle-aged men sharing a meal together, getting along with their lives, making small talk.

“So how are the kids?” Himchan asks as Yongguk makes him a wrap wordlessly.

“Oh. They’re little troublemakers and the house is practically in chaos when we leave them with the babysitter. But they’re still adorable sometimes, when they aren’t crawling over your head.”

Himchan is suddenly attacked by the strangest emotion – the dongsaeng he’s looked after for a good part of his life has grown up. He’s responsible for taking care of someone else’s life now.

But before he allows his thoughts to get the better of him, Yongguk sends the meat wrap into his mouth and he’s too busy munching to think. He hates, or maybe likes, the fact that Yongguk reads him like an open book. How he’s always in time to distract him from his less-than-pleasurable thoughts.

“So Himchan hyung, haven’t thought of getting married?” Jongup asks, throwing Yongguk a sideway glance that he skilfully avoids.

“I’m quite happy with the status quo.”

They don’t really talk about Yongguk and Himchan’s relationship, but they have been sharing an apartment ever since they’ve parted ways and the unspoken relationship they have is never brought onto the table.

Yongguk doesn’t see the need, neither does Himchan. They wouldn’t say no if any of them popped the question, but none of them have, so it’s just a consensus between all six of them.

“Also, I figure there might be some legislative restrictions with regards to that,” Himchan replies and it’s the closest to him revealing his relationship with Yongguk, but the dongsaengs leave it as that and nod their heads without another word.

“How’s the wedding photographer guy I recommended?” Daehyun asks, looking as Junhong stuffs his cheeks and poking his arm to get his attention.

“Oh. He’s great. And nice. Sohee really likes him. She says thanks.”

Daehyun narrows his eyes. “What do _you_ think of him?”

Junhong sighs like a deflated balloon and Daehyun knows the signs. He’s been through each and every one of them before his wedding and none of them welcoming to say the least. “I just don’t get why women have to go through this arduous ritual just to get married. The ending is always the same, isn’t it? We get married, regardless of how elaborate the process is, and then we live together for good.”

“It’s different. It’s like you getting your first car. You want it to work well, be pretty, spacious, comfortable and cool enough so you can show off. It’s the same thing as your marriage, in her perspective.

You still drive a car anyway, right? The ending is always the same; you get yourself a personal mode of transportation, but you bother to be elaborate about it. It’s kind of the same thing.”

Junhong looks like he’s enlightened, like a bulb has gone off at the top of his head. Daehyun knows he has manage to salvage another friend’s marriage. Marrying at an early age is rather helpful, he thinks.

“And the good part is, it’s as transient as your car selection process. After that you just have to maintain and keep the car working as well as it was, just like the marriage. You just have to pull through this short while and then you can work on just maintaining.”

Junhong picks up meat and puts it in Daehyun’s bowl. “You’re a lifesaver. I feel like I just reached Nirvana.”

Daehyun chuckles. “I’m your hyung, right? I should be the one to guide you through the more challenging times of your life.”

And then Daehyun takes a look at them, at where they are, how they’ve been, and he thinks he’s happy. They’re doing what they enjoy, being with the people they want to be with and he remembers the way Yongguk hyung had said these words, picking them out with caution.

“Everything will be okay.”

**Author's Note:**

> Title of this work inspired by "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" by Panic! At the Disco. The first phrase in this work is from "27" by Fall Out Boy.
> 
> I have been listening to quite a bit of Fall Out Boy lately and have earned a brand new perspective on marriages and life and relationships due to the wreck that is my life recently.  
> I know it doesn't say much of their outcome at the end of the twenty years, but an occupation isn't all there is to a person, is it?  
> I just hope things end well, the same way Yongguk the character has stated in this work: "Everything will be okay".
> 
> Thank you all for reading.


End file.
